Mixing politics, oil and customer service

I just received a surprising email from a professor friend in California.

Hi Charlie — well, this is a first. I’m on hold with Delta Skymiles, and in addition to the usual ABBA soundtrack, I get a nice little political message that says Congress “must” enact legislation banning oil speculating and promoting domestic drilling due to the “fragile” state of the airline industry.

Left or right, I have to say this is the first time I’ve ever been propagandized by an airline while waiting to spend my money….

That’s the first time I have heard about politics becoming part of the “hold music” while waiting for customer service. What might be coming next on these customer service announcements from these corporations that are so adept at dipping into the public funding trough?

It is nice to see that Delta’s political announcement seems to cut towards both the Democrats with the call for a ban on oil speculation and towards the Republicans with the push for more domestic drilling.

Many of us received a pleading letter from the airlines asking for support for the anti-oil-speculation bill. Chris Elliott in this blog wrote about the supreme irony represented by airline executives making this plea. His translations of the open letter expose more than a concern for the nation.

The fat executive bonuses that we’ve paid ourselves over the years are threatened. We don’t care about air service to your pitiful little communities. The only pain we really care about is that we can’t afford that third home in the Virgin Islands. This pain can be alleviated by you.

Besides, the battle in Washington over excessive speculation seems to be boiling down to Wall Street vs. the Airlines. That translates to those who know how to make money vs. those who have almost all gone bankrupt. I sure hope that Wall Street wins this legislative battle.

It is interesting that economic experts claim this bill will only make matters worse. Or that restricting speculation might restrict well-run, viable airlines from participating in the speculation through futures contracts.

This clamor for restrictions on oil speculation is emotional and misdirected. This is a wish for a silver bullet or a magic wand. It is a move to, once again, avoid making politically painful changes. It doesn’t hold water when examining the evidence.

According to the Economist: Speculators do play an important role in setting the price of oil and other raw materials. But they do so based on their expectations of future trends in supply and demand, not on whims. If they had somehow managed to push prices to unjustified heights, then demand would contract, leaving unsold pools of oil.

Here’s my political message: Now, what about more domestic drilling? What about nuclear energy? What about wind power? What about solar and thermal power?

These are all real tested efforts that can add to our national energy production. It is time that Congress wakes up and starts to put Americans first — ahead of the caribou in Alaska and the seagulls soaring over Nantucket Sound.

Drilling is an American opportunity and new safeguards make it far more environmentally friendly than when current drilling bans were enacted.

I really can’t understand the reluctance to wind, solar and nuclear. Somehow “green” Europe is moving rapidly into alternative energy and building nuclear power plants to beat the band. While here at home we are standing still complaining that the price of our oil is going up.